Conventional computing devices provide keyboards and pointing devices to assist in data entry. An application program executing on such a computing device may display a form with various fields. A user may use the keyboard or pointing device to select a field of interest and enter a value into the field. If the field is a conventional text field, then the user may use the keyboard to enter a textual or numeric value into the field. Certain fields may have a list of possible values for the fields. In such a case, the possible values may be listed in a “drop-down list” from which the user can select a desired value using either the keyboard or the pointing device. Some numeric fields may be represented by a slider with the beginning of the slider corresponding to the minimum value for the field, the end of the slider corresponding to the maximum value of the field, and an indicator between the beginning and the end of the slider representing the current value of the field. For example, a slider may be used to designate the currently displayed frame of a movie. As the movie is played, the indicator of the slider moves from the beginning to the end to indicate the number of the current frame. A user may be able to select the scroll box and move it toward the beginning to “rewind” the movie or the end to “fast forward” the movie. Drop-down lists and scroll bars are examples of “auxiliary data entry tools” in that they are displayed to assist a user in selecting a new value for a field. Other “auxiliary data entry tools” may include standard combo boxes, drop-down combo boxes, spin boxes, and so on.
Many computing devices, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants, and electronic tablets, do not have conventional keyboards for data entry. Such computing devices rely on “pointing” by a user to select new values for fields. A user can point using a stylus, their finger, or a mouse. To input a numeric value, the computing device may display a numeric pad in response to a selection of a field by the user. The user then points to the numbers in sequence to input a numeric value. The computing device may similarly display a keyboard to allow entry of alphabetic characters. Some fields may have an ordered list of possible values (e.g., days of the week) and may allow the user to select subsequent values in the list by tapping on the display.
Such data entry techniques, however, can be cumbersome. It can be time-consuming to search for and use a stylus to select characters of a displayed keyboard. Also, a user who taps one too many times on the display when selecting from an ordered list may need to restart the tapping or loop through the list of possible values to find the value of interest.